that's a lot of research. >> statistically is statistically significant, i'm not sure about that one. >> it is one more question to ask when you go for an interview >> i think it's a good idea. >> what do you think? >> i think it's a great idea. but again, i think it's crazy that they would do a study on us. the joke is a study to me he met i don't know, maybe the guy with the gold shirt will help them. [laughter] [talking over each other] >> all right,.

melissa: that is all the "money" we have for you today. "the willis report" is coming up next. gerri: tonight, welfare recipients taking out cash outstripped countless we have details of a disturbing new story. welcome to "the willis report" we begin tonight with fears of tighter gun restrictions across the u.s. now there is growing concern say new legislation may soon put them out of business. joining me now is north american firearms. a gun store outside of chicago.

welcome to you all. it's great to have you here. i am going to start with bernadette. take a look at the numbers here. it is unbelievable. we have had twice as many gun sales in november to december, as many background checks on the same time a year ago. it is astonishing how many guns are being sold across this country. what are your customers telling you about why they are buying? >> they are saying if they don't buy the guns now, they fear for the band. not only here in the state of illinois, but of course in the united states. and the fears are now more than they ever have been. gerri: essentially we are talking about the president having a working group. we don't really know what they are yet, although we have said universal background checks for

all gun buyers, mental health examinations and tougher penalties for those carrying firearms near schools. that is what the white house is talking about. a lot of people don't like this. tell me, what are you afraid of? what do you think this is bringing on for you? >> well, you know, the main thing is it is all speculation. what it is doing is clearing out and on the surface that may seem good for business. but the problem is our distributors and the people that we actually purchase our weapons from for our customers -- they are holding back amongst everything. you know, the whole gun industry just in general is out of whack. everything is out of whack. gerri: you told our producers that you are afraid that your store might go out of business

if there are big restrictions on gun sales. is that right? >> that is really true. people will get to a point where there won't be a reason to really buy a gun anymore what is ironic is beyond the frenzy, with all of the rumor mill on other things running around about what type of bands and senator dianne feinstein and the bands that she would like to do, it is just part of being afraid. they are afraid that their constitutional rights are being taken away from them. gerri: i guess we'll have to see, but there are big fears. people are opening up their textbooks and forking over thousands of dollars for these checkbooks. what's interesting if you have a problem with universal background checks for gun buyers.

>> i actually don't have a problem with background checks. it seems to me that one of the problems that we face is the gun loophole. we do need to keep guns out of the people who should not have them. but we also have to face the fact that there are 300 million guns in the country today. no government in the united states is going to take those away. so we have to be measures that address the problem. it seems to be the nra is perfectly correct when it says that if you want to protect children in schools, you don't declare that the school is a gun free zone. because it's fairly an invitation to a criminal to go there. he wouldn't go to the department of justice with a gun because he wouldn't get in. gerri: what do you say about the issues of guns in schools?

a lot of people really responded to that. what is the right course of action there for gun control in schools? >> i am the grandchildren of nine grandchildren. i have never thought to myself that i would have to worry about them in school everyday. the gentleman is absolutely right. it makes it a soft target. my idea truthfully, sweetheart, would be that they put a veteran in school. veterans the task to have been employed them when they have nothing else to do.

>> the second amendment is clear. once you speak it, back in 1994, the original ban will take place. this time, as soon as the shooting take place, the shooting happened. you can't help it. what should have been done, there was mental illness there. something should have been said because i'm sure that the young man was seen by some as not reporting that correctly. gerri: it is some kind of strength and mental health exam

leaving the children defenseless is criminal. in every way. the idea that -- well, let me put it this way, you listen to the advocates of extreme gun control. you ask them if they are against police having guns. well, that gives the argument away. it's not the guns, it's the person who holds them. we have in the country today 41 states that have concealed carry permit provisions. and another eight states that have reduced versions of that. it turns out that even by the doj numbers, there have been 110,000 cases just last year of

people using guns to stop crime. and that is a very conservative estimate. it is over a million crimes stopped by people who have guns under concealed carry permits. gerri: to that point, i believe there was a case over the weekend were a georgia mother shot an intruder, five times in the face. she hit -- hit herself in the closet. is that the kind of exercising your rights that you're talking about. >> yes, ma'am. absolutely 100%. our customer's biggest beer is that if they ban guns into the type of things that they are talking about during, you are just opening up a plethora of more criminals. because they know that no one can protect themselves.

gerri: brodeur, a question to you. we had a story about a six-year-old in maryland who was suspended from school for pointing his finger at someone else on the playground or wherever, pretending to shoot him. they called his parents, they told him he was acting up. would he make of that story? >> this is the kind of fanaticism that you see and we are in for a very heated debate in congress over the next few

weeks. this is the kind of thing you would expect. spending a six-year-old from first grade because he pointed his finger and said pop. [laughter] >> you say it's going to be a big debate. democratic congresswoman heidi heitkamp says that she doesn't like what the president is suggesting already. it's going to be a big battle royale i think. >> it must be the first loss for obama in the new year. gerri: thank you both for coming on tonight. we appreciate what you have to say so much. gerri: now we want to know what you think. are you worried about president obama tightening restrictions on guns? avant gerriwillis.com, vote on the right-hand side of the

screen, we will share the results at the end of tonight's show. there's a lot more to come this hour, including new calls for an end to government cash handouts as welfare recipients are using their benefit cards at strip clubs and other x-rated establishments. and nancy pelosi says the latest tax deal in congress does not go far enough this is $100,000.

we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

gerri: yet another battle looming in washington. in a number of weeks, the u.s. is set to said they had a $16.4 trillion limit. by the time that ends, we will be closer to that. a top democrat is making it clear that she wants more taxes.

joining me now is pete carney, political columnist for the washington examiner. welcome back. it's great to have you here. >> and your. gerri: i am, of course, talking about nancy pelosi. >> it's not enough. we have already agreed to a trillion dollars in spending cuts. the. gerri: were you talking about them? more taxes? >> we are talking about the tax code. closing loopholes, $38 billion right there. gerri: holy cow, what do you say? >> the democrats suck all those

tax credits into the fiscal cliff deal and they say they want more tax goals. they want to close the loopholes. it's big oil. when they close the tax loopholes, there are special carveouts for big oil. >> maybe they should take away all these benefits for green companies they have taken out the back yes, all of the corporate tax credits. they had cuts for people like general electric. i don't think we will see the democrats looking to get rid of these tax credits.

>> they need to raise the debt ceiling, but if we don't raise it without a plan to get out of debt, while the should be fired. >> even to get rid of some of the special interest tax rates,. >> if you are a republican trying to get good media coverage, you're playing the wrong bit game. that is the only time that you have leverage. if you don't raise the debt

ceiling right away, it's not defaulting on their loans. the treasury secretary can cut other spending. it is basically a government shutdown. republicans have lost that in the past. but i think unless there is something that the president has to lose, you don't have any leverage in the spending cuts. gerri: you know, the far left and far right will think that that -- well, the different analyses of what happened. they think will lives lost in the last debate what do you make of that? the republicans were in a much weaker bargaining position. what speaker boehner was doing anything that taxes went up at midnight on december 31. he actually got a tax cut compared where would've been. everybody else was going to get higher income taxes and they didn't. in this case from the president keeps more than what speaker boehner caved.

the. gerri: you make a good point. i wanted to respond one more thing, which i found interesting. steve moore of "the wall street journal" said we had heard that i'm not going to negotiate with the president anymore and now we find out that the president told speaker boehner that the country doesn't have a spending problem. does this tell you anything you that you don't need to know about the democratic agenda? >> is that we think we should be spending more than $3 trillion a year. >> when you're dealing with that, it's hard to know how you're going to negotiate with that. gerri: thank you for coming on tonight, it's always great to

see you. >> thank you. gerri: the best laid plans of mice and men. like the tax bonanza that democrats are eagerly awaiting. that may already be behind us. more than 1000 public companies declared special dividends. the president lobbied to put things in place to make sure that the wealthy pay their fair share. but some did better than others. not only did cost no paid early dividends to avoid taxes, but they made it a mega-dividend. $3 billion. equip equivalent to more than six years of that. not only do they frontload the payment ahead of the tax deadline, the company borrow the money and interest on that $3.5 billion loan is tax deductible. maybe even tax revolutions. all this translates into less revenue at a higher rate.

the ultimate tax treasure is not costco. it is french actor turned here. he is friends with vladimir putin now. he will be portraying rasputin and nicholas the ii. a lesson for tax policymakers in washington. higher taxes are not the answer. if you are fired up about this or any other issues, drop me an e-mail at gerri@foxbussiness.com. >> coming up on "the willis report", watching strippers on the pole.

but at what cost you? the shocking report. and the end of 2012 brought an investigation into ceos. another example of an uneven playing field. we will get reaction from former sec chairman harvey pitt. watch out, teenyboppers and parents. we will tell you about the youngest celebrity entering the prepaid debit card business. why you should stay away. we are on the next and "the willis report."

music is a universal language. but when i was in an accident... i was worried the health care system spoke a nguage all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get and tools to estimate what my care may cost. so i never missed a beat. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. gerri: strippers and a shocking report of welfare recipients using government cash.

gerri: you ever wonder where do all your taxpayer dollars go? well, a new survey shows disturbing destinations like this one. the club 11. cops have been cracking down on this bronx club for years. five people were stabbed there. bouncers broke up a the party up for him with pepper spray. recipients could make cash withdrawals from their food stamp cards. welfare recipients in the big apple spend welfare money in bars and liquor stores and x-rated video shops. hookah parlors and strip clubs. how much money? a family of four could get benefits as much a $650 in food stamps. in 433 in cash.

only the cash portion of the benefit, which is meant for housing and necessities can be accessed by one of these atms like i described. if you want to go to a strip club, that's fine, but not with my taxpayer dollars. there is legislation that would ban welfare withdraws and strip clubs. but it is languishing for support and going nowhere. liberals believe that reform will hurt the poor. meanwhile, remember octomom? five and coming up welfare, she is back on. eight months after she filed for bankruptcy. personal responsibility are the two words that occur to me here. government should know how its money is being spent. pardon me, how our money is being spent.

that is unbelievable. when we come back, insider training turning into a trend on wall street. i will ask harvey pitt coming up next what are you doing? nothing. are you stealing our daughter's school supplies and taking them to work? no, i was just looking for my stapler and my... this thing. i save money by using fed ground nd buy my own supplies. that's a great idea. i'm going to go... we got clients in today. [ male announcer ] save on ground shipping at fedex office. [ male announcer ] how do you make 70,000 trades a second... ♪

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>> from our fox business studios in new york, here is gerri willis. gerri: or have been a ton of insider cases. tougher trading rules for corporate executives. the group highlights traits that are highly beneficial and accursed just before lawsuits. let's ask former sec chairman harvey pitt. it's great to have you back on the show. i want to get some details here

with the council found. avoiding a 10% loss within a week. is there something going on here? is this indicative of a bigger problem? may be a legal problem? >> it would seem so. they look looked at 20,000 executives trading and they found over 1400 and they have immediately before news announcements based on my government experience, that is just too much to be attributed to good luck. gerri: the ceos don't buy until we do. they have to follow special rules. tell me about these plans. >> the purpose of this rule is very valuable.

having material information and than what the rule does is it allows them and they have no material information to set up a trading plan and what we are seeing here is the possibility that many people made me go and waving their plans to take advantage of insider information. >> they can do that for one thing. by adopting a new plan. gerri: so i can look at it and

say him out of his batters, by now if it's good to. >> that seems to be what the data at least suggests might be happening. so there is a very big need for cheerfulness, which i think the fcc is engaged in doing. gerri: we talk a lot about those who were later cleared. lots of conversations about individual actors. this is something much more pervasive and fundamental. this is a lie. a lot of corporate ceos and other executives who really take advantage of the system. three you are absolutely right. some of those people were outsiders. but here we are dealing with insiders. people that are privy to information because that's their job. that is a breach of all sorts of rules and requirements and it is

illegal. >> you say that the good news is the rules are on the book to stop it. we don't have to have rules, we need to import so we have? two i believe that. there have been enforcement actions. but the word now is that in light of the report, which was published, the sec is taking a closer look, and so is the u.s. attorney in new york. gerri: i am sure action will follow. harvey pitt, thank you so much. it's always great to see you. >> thank you. gerri: on to other government problems. remember casher clunkers? the white house proclaims an economic and environmental success. of course, we know it wasn't a success on the first count and now it turns out that they are

not right about that one either. according to eu magazine, the cars were not recycle. they shredded them. that process sent tons of parts to landfills each year. so which cars ended up in the shredder? that list is tonight's top five. number five is the chevy blazer. 50 miles per gallon, about a clunker. this gm classic is clearly a clunker. it was redesigned in the '90s is a smaller percentage before being discontinued. before that, the dodge caravan. it was one of the biggest hits for chrysler. the company plans to make them through 2014. the jeep grand cherokee is

another one. this vehicle is still popular with off-road enthusiast even though it only gets about 50 miles per gallon. number two is the board f150. but it only gets about 17 miles per gallon. in the number one most traded in clunker is the ford explorer. very popular in the late '90s and early two 2000. it gets about 20 miles per gallon. and the number one was the toyota corolla. it gets much better gas mileage and many of those. that was the car that these clunkers were treated and four. justin bieber is the latest celebrity to do this latest business venture. and the start of the earnings season tomorrow turning things around. a preview comes up next.

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gerri: you probably saw it, stops falling today. the s&p dropped four points to close at 1461. this after hitting a five-year high on friday. investors are awaiting the start of the fourth-quarter earnings season which kicks off tomorrow. joining me now to talk about the earnings result is the cofounder of capital management. great to have you here. all right, we have this earnings season coming up and we have

recent bad economic news. what is the concern for companies is a surface first quarter? >> the discretionary spending that goes on without top 2% of centers so not everyone in january recess with the payroll tax and the ones who have realized that the smaller paycheck they've gotten will come under the social security payroll tax. people won't have the extra money. gerri: will the fourth-quarter earnings showing a depression? >> it is really what's going to happen in the upcoming quarter as well. gerri: okay, let's talk about people using europe as an excuse for poor mornings or underperforming. would he say that?

>> you can argue that europe is a little farther along. at least you know what you're doing over there. here, there are so many things that are uncertain and undone as you mentioned earlier on the show. congress wants to go back for even more tax hikes. people are not certain what they have to spend. the fortunate part is thatt3 earnings are only one part of whether stocks go up. you have appreciation and you have dividends. if you look back to the lows of 2009, when the stock market was at 6500 on the dow and expounded on the s&p, the earnings are in line and they have gone up by twice as much in terms of price. you don't need earnings to continue to go on. gerri: i love the way you tell a good story. i think it's easy to hear only

the noise and not really understand fundamentally what's going on. half the people you would talk to now would not even realize that we have had an incredible run last year. >> you know that because there have been equity funds and equity investments. people are pulling out money as the markets are doing well. the markets don't follow it and they wait until he gets high. when it hits an all-time high, which like we can, that will make the market heads. gerri: some of these numbers are interesting. s&p, dropping 70% for earnings in october. we felt this would be recovery time and we have been waiting for recovery time for a very

long time now. you know, are we going to get back beyond 2% growth? the economy needs to expand at a faster rate to employ people, put people back to work, get this economy going. >> we have even 20 year lows on historical values. you'd never know it by looking at it, but that's a factor it's what happens is you have to say, okay, you can't have price movements back to the norm. even if earnings just flat out and they don't move out. it's probably not going to go anywhere. there are other things that go on. >> we are talking about equities and a lot of people are worried about their bonds. we have look at emerging markets and the famous level of u.s. stocks. but has much greater insight.

also we do like stocks and bonds. so many people are contrary and on that right now. gerri: thank you so much. we have more to come. my "two cents more" on the hockey league. and what justin bieber does. i will explain it all coming up next.

gerri: first it was the card car -- ian, then it was susie orman. why do you and your kids should stay away from the latest gimmick of justin bieber

gerri: we know some of you loved justin bieber. but we have a warning for you. stay away from his latest financial product. care to explain is the president of consumer education for smartcredit.com. john, i'm going to put up the full screen. it adds up. eight dollars to replace a car, $3 if you don't use the card. what you say about pcs? what he say about the card? >> if you take a monthly fee and nothing else, meaning that you do nothing else ,-com,-com ma you are still paying a little over $47 per year as an annual fee to get access your own money. this card -- i can't believe i'm saying this, compared to some of the other product is actually not as bad as some of the other ones. it is a flawed way of doing this. it's like saying that my broken arm is not as bad as yours.

>> okay, you and i have talked about russell simmons, kim kardashian, even magic johnson let's be clear. celebrities seek ways to raise money, make more money. and how are they doing a? >> welcome i think what's happening is them of these issuers recognize that there is a market. and that instead of marketing a product like normal financial institutions are doing so, they are actually hooking themselves up with celebrities. this is the only financial services product that market says. morally simmons, george lopez, no other products can say that we have this list of a-level celebrities. it just doesn't exist. they are trying to snag onto the celebrity followers. justin bieber's have millions of followers on twitter and those types of outlets. this is another way for them to

monetize that pays. >> consumers are voting up from 82 billion and 2012. why do you object? >> i don't want this product for a couple of reasons. not necessarily the justin bieber card, the prepaid cards in general. they are mis-marketed, there is this suggestion that they are good for your credit and cheaper than checking accounts and credit cards. that is only true in very unique scenarios. second is trying to get people used to paying up the to use their own money. twenty and 30,000 dollar limits that have no annual fee. that is someone else's money, significant protections, you don't enjoy any of that stuff

and sometimes you can get a gift card to put the québec summit -- $50 on it. gerri: you said that. i have to tell you. >> thank you and good to see you. gerri: thank you. onto the stay in business, honest on this day in business in 1927, the first transatlantic telephone conversation user radio took place. the american telephone and telegraph company known as at&t borst a two-way conversation between the president of new york and post office secretary sir evelyn murray in london. at 8:45 a.m., he answered the call and gifford said, hello, london. change the way we communicate. thirty-one calls remain on that

day. costing $75 for the first three minutes. that would be more than $992 in 2012. today, at&t connects 8 cents per minute and people receive an average of more than 12 cards per day. it was established on this business day, january the seventh, 86 years ago today. we will be right up my 2 cents more. are you worried about the president's tightening gun restrictions?

at a dry cleaner, we replaced people with a machine. what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally.

gerri: after mass shootings in colorado and connecticut, there have been big increases across the u.s. and the number of background checks for gun sales and permits. buyers say they're worried about president obama tightening restrictions. here is was and what you're tweeting me @gerriwillisfbn.

obama will use executive power to screw up anything he can. filigrees, some worry about everything he does. at the want to buy again, but i want the right to do so. we ask the question and said to have 87 percent said yes and 14 percent said no. your e-mails, what has the president and congress been doing to balance our federal budget and get the deficit under control? why have taxpayers accepted this total mismanagement of the federal government and waste of tax dollars? of there were a private business that would have all been fired. and one simple step to solve our debt problems now and forever is to make public officials personally response will for public that they create and buy them promoting public office until the debt is paid. since most cannot, we would be rid of them. in a generation of lawmakers would find raised to five ways to generate revenue and not try to buy those with a reckless spending.